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Camp Meeting Speaker Used Same Topic & Same Text All 10 Services

 
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Post Camp Meeting Speaker Used Same Topic & Same Text All 10 Services doyle
Camp Meeting Speaker Used Same Bible Text All Ten Nights

By Doyle Daugherty

In June, 1903, the Church of God had its first official meeting in a rundown, one or two-room mountain shack in Cherokee County, NC. The kitchen was an outside wood-fire near the front porch.

The 10 or so people attending, voted for A. J. Tomlinson, a home missionary to Appalachia from Elwood, Indiana, to be their pastor. Elwood was Tomlinson’s home town. He agreed, based upon if they would name the group “Church of God.”

In 1904 or 1905, Tomlinson moved the 60 miles from famine-plagued Cherokee County, NC, to the closest town with a regular railroad stop; Cleveland, TN. He started the North Cleveland Church of God and became Pastor and Sunday School Superintendent.

Another part of the move from Cherokee County at that time, was people needed jobs. Not only did Cleveland have a regular railroad stop, it had furniture factories. If the Church of God was to become a movement, there had to be something to move on, and jobs with which to fuel the move.

FLORIDA BOUND
On a summer day in 1909, Tomlinson bought a ticket and boarded the train in Cleveland. He was headed to as close as he could get a train ride, to Pleasant Grove, FL. He had been invited to be guest speaker for the South Florida Holiness Association.

TEN SERVICES; ONE TOPIC AND ONE TEXT
The male members of the Association had agreed that Tomlinson could speak, but they wanted nothing to do with the Church of God. They did not believe in such organizations. For ten services Tomlinson took one topic and used one text:

“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32).

At the end of the 10th service, he gave opportunity to unite with the Church of God. Between 60 and 70 lined up for membership. Almost all of those in line were from the group that had pledged not to join.

NEW CAMPGROUND
A few years later, a division arose concerning the Holiness Association property. Some felt the Church of God should have it. Others felt it should remain with the South Florida Holiness Association. Those who had joined the Church of God, decided to buy property in Wimauma, FL and have their Camp Meeting there.

ZENO C. THARP, who later became General Overseer of the Church of God, was one of those who joined the Church of God. He put this and other stories in a book published by the Church of God in 1956. The book was titled “Favorite Stories and Illustrations.” He wrote, “My brother John, who was only a boy at the time, gave the first $50 to purchase the new Campground in Wimauma.”

Tharp also shared about a revival in Pleasant Grove in 1907, preached by F.M. Britton. He said his half-sister Sylvia was one of the first to receive the Holy Ghost with Speaking in Tongues. According to Tharp, Mrs. E. E. Simmons received the Holy Ghost Baptism at home the same day at about the same time.

Of that 1907 revival, Tharp stated, “There were scores of people baptized with the Holy Ghost during that revival, including myself and most of my family.”

Think what you will, say what you want about A.J. Tomlinson, but that soft-spoken man was a dynamo for God and the Church of God. How many Church of God congregations are there in Florida now? 300-400?

Observation: If it took the Holy Ghost to turn the Church of God into a movement, can we ever expect that anything less will keep it moving?

Doyle
writedoyle@gmail.com
404-933-1373[/b]
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The largest room in the world is the room for improvement.


Last edited by doyle on 6/23/20 9:18 am; edited 1 time in total
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6/2/20 6:16 pm


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Post FLRon
Observation: If it took the Holy Ghost to turn the Church of God into a movement, can we ever expect that anything less will keep it moving?

The history of Israel and the Church bear witness that whenever men moved away from the leading of God in favor of their own desires, catastrophe soon followed. To your point Doyle, any church or denomination, including the Church of God, is doomed to languish in the distant memory of “the good old days” unless she seeks 1st the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.

What has always puzzled me is that “people of the Spirit” know full well that without the Spirit they have only a “form of godliness”, yet we seem determined to chart our own course.

It might be good to return to Galatians 3:3 and read again Paul’s instructions:
“Are you so foolish? Having began in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh”?

Thought provoking post Doyle.
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6/6/20 4:00 pm


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